Robbing a small town North Iowa bank at gunpoint sends Minnesota man to prison for over nine years

CEDAR RAPIDS – A man who robbed a bank at gunpoint was sentenced on November 3, 2020, to more than nine years in federal prison.

Luis Angel Vega, age 28, from Austin, Minnesota, received the prison term after a June 18, 2020 guilty plea to bank robbery and using a firearm during a violent crime.

Information from a plea agreement and at sentencing showed that, on September 3, 2019, Vega robbed a bank in Lime Springs, Iowa. Vega walked into the bank armed with a Colt .45 caliber pistol and wearing a balaclava. Vega pointed the pistol at three bank employees and demanded that a teller fill a bag with cash in thirty seconds. He then took $6,869 in cash from the bank. Based on the description given by the bank employees and the fact that Vega drove his own truck to the robbery, law enforcement officers were able to locate and arrest Vega less than three hours after the robbery.

Vega was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams. Vega was sentenced to 114 months’ imprisonment. He was ordered to make $6,869 in restitution to the bank. He must also serve a five-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system. Vega is being held in the United States Marshal’s custody until he can be transported to a federal prison.